


Gravity

by BuckyAndDanno



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 3B Finale Tag, Athena is Buck's Mom, Bobby and Athena are Buck's Parents, Bobby is Buck's Dad, Buck And Eddie Have Feelings, Buck Has The Biggest Heart, Buck Loves His Parents, Evan Buckley Has Nine Lives, Getting Together, Hero Buck, M/M, Season Finale Tag, slight Buck whump, tag to 3x18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24040894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckyAndDanno/pseuds/BuckyAndDanno
Summary: Tag to 3x18, based on the promo.Gravity is against them, and damn everything to hell when Evan Buckley makes a promise.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Abby Clarke (Past), Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 345





	Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this fic is my response to the season finale trailer. I’m based in the UK and we still have to wait for the 19th for Season 3 to start, so my knowledge of 3a and 3b is based only on youtube clips for now. Still, that trailer is epic, and I may have watched it a handful of times. I’m probably wrong, but my take from it is that Buck’s the one on the side of the tipped up carriage, being that the close-up shot shows him wearing a recue helmet rather than his normal one. I also feel like if they’re going to make a deal out of Abby being engaged, her partner is gonna be in danger and it’s obviously going to be Buck going to rescue him. There’s also the cut between Buck looking scared and Bobby looking scared, which makes me think Buck might be in a bit of danger (though it could also be Bobby, I mean, what are the chances that they injure Buck in two consecutive finales?). There’s also the creaking noise, and Oliver has said in an interview I’ve found that they battle with gravity in the finale, so this is the result of all of that. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> I don’t own 9-1-1.

It started out as a perfectly normal shift.

Buck had sought out Bobby first, wanting news on Athena. He’d been told she was fine, had seen May’s prom pictures on Instagram, but he just wanted to make sure.

Everything that had happened with Red had made him feel extremely protective of his family, and his surrogate mother meant way too much for him to just lie back and not worry.

Bobby smiled in response. “She’s fine, Buck. Doc said she’ll be home in a few days.”

“Okay, okay, good.” Buck lets out a breath. “Maybe… Maybe I could go visit her, after shift?”

Bobby’s hand is warm on his shoulder. “I think she’d like that.”

They share a smile before Bobby excuses himself to his office, although he throws over his shoulder. “I’ll drive you. I need to bring her some of my famous pecan pie.”

God, Buck loves his parents.

They get through roll call, drills and provisions checks before everything goes to hell.

“Train derailment!” Bobby yells to them as the siren’s blare. They’re in the trucks in moments, every one of them grim faced and uncertain of what they’re about to face.

As soon as they get to the site, Bobby is conversing with the other captains, and shouting orders. Buck is quick to work side by side with Eddie on getting the injured out of the carriages and into the triage units.

Then he sees an all too familiar flash of red, and his heart stops.

“Abby?”

Abby Clarke can’t breathe.

She’d maintained level headed throughout the first hour or so of the incident, calling in to 9-1-1 and relaying everything they needed to know. Having been a dispatcher herself, she was familiar with the process. But then her personal feelings had taken over and now she was doing everything she could to try and find her own loved one.

“Abby?”

The sound of a familiar voice brings her a moment of clarity, looking up into the concerned face of Evan Buckley.

“Buck…” She brings him into a momentary hug, but all too quickly her mind reminds her that she needs to keep searching, and he’s having to use every part of him to stop her.

“Abby… Abby! Wait!”

“I am trying to find my fiancé!” She screams, tears breaking free. She can see the slight flinch her words create, but she doesn’t have time to worry about it

He sighs, finally managing to hold her back. “And you know I can’t let you go over there.”

“Buck…” Her voice is pitiful, but she can see the change in him from friend to firefighter.

“What’s his name?”

She swallows. “Adam. Adam King.”

He asks her a few more questions – what he looked like and where she’d last seen him – and then he’s taking her hands, squeezing softly.

“I will do everything I can, to bring him back to you.” His gaze is fierce and driven. “I promise.”

She believes him, because she knows Buck, despite everything; she knows how much he once cared for her – that his huge heart won’t let him fail her in this. But she also knows that his heart is one of his weaknesses – his penchance to care too much for others and not enough for himself. A part of her wants to reach out and stop him, tell him no, but she loves her fiancé, and she knows Buck is a damn good firefighter. So she brushes away her tears and nods. “Thank you Evan.”

She sees him swallow thickly, lips twitching with the smallest of smiles, then he’s off, nothing more than bright strips of yellow in the darkness.

Buck heads straight over to Bobby, grim but determined. “Abby’s here.”

Bobby’s eyes widen, his hand immediately reaching for Buck. “You okay?”

He looks like he isn’t sure how to answer, tongue darting out to lick dry lips, but he nods. “Yeah, of course.” He rubs a hand over his face. “She’s looking for a fiancé. Adam King. Said he was last seen in the dining carriage.”

Bobby flicks his eyes down to the clipboard in his hands, studying the train layout and corresponding disaster plan. “Carriage seven.” He looks over his shoulder to the carriage that’s stood on one end. “I was just about to put together a team for that one. You and Eddie want to take it?”

Buck’s already off, mind working overtime as he tries to think of the best way to get in there. “We’re gonna need the aerial and a harness, Cap!”

Bobby watches him go, motioning over to Eddie. “Diaz, bring the aerial around to carriage seven,” he points, “and assist Buck with a rope rescue.”

Eddie just nods, racing to the aerial ladder truck and bringing it around to one side of carriage seven, extending the ladder slowly. Buck has already got a smaller ladder from one of the other trucks, using it to scale the train carriage that’s laying flat beside carriage seven. He’s peering up at the carriage, trying to see through the windows. “I can’t see anyone yet, Cap!” He says into his radio, as one of the other crew members from the 118 lowers him a rope from the top of the aerial.

Suddenly Bobby is beside him, looking grim beneath his professional façade. “They’re most likely at the bottom, if there’s anyone in there. You’re gonna have to go deep.”

Buck immediately flashes back to Eddie’s rescue, to the collapsing cavern. He knows gravity is going to be one of the things working against him. But they’ve done this before – not so much with a train but, he remembers the earthquake, the elevator shaft…

He stops his train of thought before it lands on Ali, because that will only lead back to Abby and Buck just can’t deal with thinking about all of that right now. He needs to focus on his job.

“I can do it.” He says, expression tight as he puts on the harness, then secures the rope.

Eddie’s beside him then, hand warm on Buck’s shoulder. “Just don’t cut the rope.” He says with a hint of a smirk.

Buck matches his expression. “I’m not you, Diaz.” But there’s a warm flutter in his chest – these feelings he’d realised so suddenly when he’d thought Eddie was dead – that he tries his hardest to ignore. Just like the thoughts of Ali and Abby, now was not the time to be thinking about his team-mate too intimately. Instead he tugs the rope, letting his other team-mate and the aerial slowly lift him.

As he rises, he flicks the light of his rescue helmet on, trying to peer down into the carriage through broken windows. It’s dark, his light reflecting off of silver seats. He can see red, but he’s pretty sure it’s just the plush seating, and then…

Movement.

“Stop!” He yells down, and the line stills. “I think I see movement! I’m going in here!”

They send a rescue line down which he attaches to his hip, and then he’s manoeuvring his way inside, careful of the broken glass and other shrapnel. He may be off blood thinners, but the last thing he wanted to do was wind up injured again.

Slowly he lowers himself down the aisle, using the seats on either side like hand and foot holds. It’s really just like rock climbing, he tells himself – like rappelling down once you’ve reached the top. “Is anyone down here?”

There’s a muffle, and then a “Yes! Yes, we’re here!”

Buck grins, moving a little quicker down the rest of the way. “Cap! I got two people here!” He quickly takes a look at them both; one woman, one man.

The woman has bright green eyes that are clenched in pain, her leg twisted under her. Blonde ringlets frame her face, damp with sweat. There’s a clear protrusion of her belly, and Buck suddenly understands her issue. “Are you in labour?” He asks her softly, squeezing her hand in his.

She nods softly. “39 weeks. He’s early.”

Buck curses inwardly. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She shakes her head no.

“Okay. Don’t worry.” He gives her a comforting smile. “My name’s Evan, and I’m gonna get you out of here.”

He quickly checks over the man. “Are you hurt, sir?”

“No. No.” He shakes his head. “I’m a doctor. She went into labour before the crash. I came down here to help her.”

“Okay.” He nods. “I’m gonna get her out first and then I’ll be back for you. Okay?”

Into his radio he says. “Bringing out a young woman. 39 weeks pregnant. She’s gone into premature labour.”

The radio crackles. Bobby says. “Paramedics are standing by.”

He makes quick work of securing the rescue line around the woman, and then they’re rising slowly; the tug of the rope and Buck’s arm and legs pulling them up the carriage. As soon as they’re at the window, he braces himself on the seats and gently lifts her out. The line’s secure and Thompson, on the aerial, can easily lower her to the top of the carriage below them, where Cap and Eddie are waiting.

As they lower her, Thompson throws him down another rescue line, and then Buck’s back inside.

He makes his way back to the man, the doctor, smiling softly as he works to secure the rope around him. “You’re a good man for staying with her.”

He shrugs. “It’s my job.”

Buck feels his own pride blossom; first responders are true heroes day in and day out.

“You’re bleeding.” The man says with a frown, and Buck looks down to his arm, feeling a sting.

“Must’a nicked it on the glass.” Buck shrugs. “I’ve had worse.”

The man shoots him a look that says ‘you’re still bleeding’, and Buck just laughs, tugging the ropes to start lifting them up.

“I’m sure you’ve seen worse, Doctor…”

“King. Adam King.”

Buck would have frozen were he not already making his way up the carriage with him. “Adam…” Then he allows a soft smile. “You’re fiance’s waiting for you.”

He seems shocked, but smiles back. “She’s okay?”

Buck chuckles. “Takes a lot more than this to knock Abby Clarke down.”

The man’s mouth opens, and he starts to say something, but then there’s an audible creak around them, and Bobby’s voice is shouting in his radio. “Buck, you need to move it! The carriage isn’t stable.”

They move it double time, Buck’s hand gripping the other man’s hip as he pushes him up in front of him. “Go, go, come on!”

Then they’re at the window, Buck helping him lower himself out. But the rescue line catches on a shard still stuck to the window’s edge, snapping immediately. Buck’s hand tightens around the man’s arms, holding him back from falling completely out of the window.

Gravity is still against them.

Adam’s body is being pulled down by the angle with which he’s leant out of the broken window, and Buck can only plant his heels into the chair backs just enough to hold him. He can’t pull him up. The carriage is creaking loudly around them, and Buck knows there’s not enough time.

Everything slows around him as he makes a decision, letting a single hand go from Adam, the other gripping tighter to keep him in place. His free hand slips to his harness, unclasping his rope, then quickly attaches it to the belt around Adam’s waist. There’s a moment where their eyes meet – where Adam comprehends what Buck’s doing – and Buck just nods.

There’s so much it says.

It also doesn’t say enough.

Then he lets go.

The angle of the rope pulls Adam the rest of the way out of the window, but the tension holds, keeping him suspended but safe; away from the now toppling carriage.

The resulting force sends Buck falling backwards for just a few seconds, his head colliding with one of the seats, and then the carriage is falling, and Buck’s thrown to his side. He hits the floor of the carriage just seconds before it hits the ground, but Buck’s already unconscious.

Abby can only watch with bated breath as two men appear at the window where Buck went in. She recognises them both.

“Adam…” Her breath leaves her in one go, glad he’s safe, glad Buck kept his promise, and then the line snaps. Adam’s body goes rigid, and she can see it’s only through Buck’s grip that he’s not falling.

She screams.

The creak of the carriage is all she can hear, the slow sway it’s starting to make. All she can feel is fear.

She blinks.

The next second, Adam’s free of the train, hanging by a different rope, and there’s no sign of Buck. The carriage topples completely, a raw agonised voice screaming “BUCK!” and Abby can only stare.

Dust plumes as the carriage hits the floor, and then there’s a flurry of movement. Firefighters are yelling, pointing, screaming Evan’s name, and Abby just feels numb.

Tense minutes pass, and Adam’s back in her arms but she can’t hear anything except for the way he whispers. “He sacrificed himself for me…”

Damn everything to hell when Evan Buckley made a promise.

Eddie feels nothing but pure, unadulterated fear the moment he sees Buck take off his line and attach it to the other man. He watches, helpless, as Buck lets the man go – the line swinging free to hold him safe away from the carriage – and falls backwards into the dark. Then the carriage falls, dust billowing, and all Eddie can do is scream.

“BUCK!”

Bobby is immediately rallying other fire crews, screaming orders, yelling himself for Buck, and Eddie just feels numb. He stands there on top of the other carriage, watching the fallen section for any sign of movement – any sign of Buck.

Then he falls to his knees and cries.

Bobby’s beside him in a second, whispering comforts of “He’ll be okay,” and “It’s Buck,” but that does nothing to sooth Eddie. They’ve always joked that Buck had nine lives, but what if this was it? What if this was the time that Eddie lost him for real?

The knowledge of what could be, simply breaks his heart, and with it comes a torrent of emotions he’d barely let himself acknowledge.

This is worse than Shannon, because for all she was his ex-wife and the mother of his child, they’d had their outs for years. Buck… Buck was everything to him, to Christopher, and only now did he realise just what that meant.

He was in love with Evan Buckley, and now… now he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get to tell him.

Sobs rip from his throat at the realisation, and Bobby holds him close for another minute. Then his chin is being tilted, Bobby’s eyes boring into his. “Buck needs you.”

They move, Eddie’s sobs swallowed back down in favour of trying to find his – hopefully only injured, at worst – friend.

He and Bobby are moving around the wreckage, a team already searching inside, and Eddie just whispers. “Dammit Buck… Why’d you leave the line?”

“Y-You only said not to c-cut it.”

Eddie whirls.

Buck comes to with a cough. He’s surrounded by pitch black, his lamp broken, but beyond sharp pains in the arm pinned beneath him and a killer headache, he’s thankfully uninjured, it seems.

Slowly he comes to stand on shaky legs, holding his arm to his chest. He’s pretty sure it’s broken, and by the way everything is swaying around him, despite being able to see absolutely nothing, he’s pretty sure he has a concussion.

He can breathe though. He’s alive. Those are the most important things.

He puts his good arm out to the side, trying to figure out his bearings. If he can just find an exit…

He can hear people shouting his name, and some of them sound closer than others.

Buck blinks, and sure enough there’s a light ahead of him, growing steadily brighter.

“Buckley?” Someone says, and then there’s a hand on his shoulder, the light bringing forth a familiar, smiling face.

“J-Jones…” Buck smiles in relief, the other man slipping his arm around Buck’s waist.

“Let’s get you out of here buddy.”

Buck swallows back bile, his arm throbbing madly. “S-sounds like a p-plan…”

“Jones to Captain 118. We have Buckley.” Jones leads him carefully to an exit point, and then his feet are on solid earth. He can see movement of other firefighters in front of him, but his vision is greying slightly, and he’s seeking out only one person in particular.

The face that always greets his mind’s eye when he’s injured.

Eddie.

The latino firefighter is staring at the wreckage, back to Buck, and he hears him whisper. “Dammit Buck… Why’d you leave the line?”

He can’t help but grin. “Y-You only said not to c-cut it.”

Eddie whirls, and Buck is engulfed in a tight embrace not two seconds later.

“Temerario, tonto, idiota de gran corazon!” Eddie starts yelling at him in spanish, still holding tightly.

Buck groans, arm pressed between them, vision greying further with the pain. “Ed… Eddie…”

Eddie finally pulls back, looking Buck over, and shakes his head. “Let’s get you checked out, mi amor.” He gently leads Buck over to where Hen and Chimney are, yelling over to Cap as they pass. “Your idiot son’s fine!”

Buck can see Bobby holding back from giving Buck his own tight hug, gaze lingering on the way Buck’s holding his arm, and gives his pops a grin. “N-Nine lives.” He knows he’s shaking slightly as he sits on the bed in the ambo, letting Hen and Chim look him over.

The two paramedics work side by side to set Buck up on a saline drip, give him some painkillers, and splint his arm. “Definitely broken, Buckaroo.” Chim says with a shake of his head, but it’s clear the man is just as relieved that Buck hadn’t used up all of his chances.

Hen’s shining a light in his eyes then, and Buck flinches back. His vision has cleared a little as the morphine takes effect. Hen sighs. “Got yourself a nasty concussion, Buck. Any dizziness?”

“A little.” He admits, and Hen squeezes his knee.

“I’m gonna let Eddie help keep you awake, and then we’re gonna take you off to the hospital, okay?”

He knows better than to argue, especially when Eddie settles beside him, a warm arm around Buck’s back that makes his skin tingle.

As Hen jumps down from the rig to go speak to Bobby, Buck sees a flash of red lingering at the ambo doors. “Abby…” He gives her a small smile, turning on the bed to see her properly, unconsciously leaning into Eddie’s hold.

She smiles back at him. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

He shrugs softly. “I’ve had worse.”

The looks she gives him says she wants to know more, but Buck just shares a look with Eddie, who laughs. “Buckaroo here has nine lives.”

“Who’s been counting?” He smirks. “Hope this wasn’t my last.”

“I’m just gonna have to wrap you up in bubble wrap, you know that, right?”

Adam is beside Abby, and gives Buck his own smile. “Thank you, for what you did.”

Buck just repeats the doctor’s own words. “It’s my job.”

Hen returns after that, saying that Chim’s gonna take the two of them while she finishes off with Cap. Abby’s still smiling, telling Buck she’ll keep in touch this time, and then she’s looking at Eddie, knowing. “Don’t let him go like I did.”

Then she and Adam are gone, leaving the two firefighters to share a look as Hen closes the doors and the ambulance takes off.

The ride is short, but the tension between them is palpable, and Buck isn’t sure if it’s all to do with his idiotic stunt, or what Abby just insinuated. He knows his own feelings, but that doesn’t mean Eddie reciprocates.

“She’s right.” Eddie eventually says, and Buck does a double take.

“W-What?” The morphine has eased off his pain now, so he’s sure he’s hearing clearly.

Eddie sighs. “I thought you were dead, Evan… and I… I don’t ever want to let you go…” He takes Buck’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “I love you.”

Buck’s pretty sure he’s doing a great impression of a fish then, because of all the words he’d thought would come out of Eddie’s mouth, it was not that.

“You don’t have to say anything.” Eddie continues, oblivious. “I just… I need you to know how much you mean to me. To Chris. You’re our family, Buck, and we can’t lose you.”

Buck’s lips slowly stretch into an all-consuming grin, eyes lighting up. It’s probably a strange sight, considering the concussion – sure his eyes are little more than pin pricks – but he can’t help it. “I love you too, Eddie.”

Eddie does a double take this time, staring at Buck in disbelief.

Buck just laughs and kisses him.

Later, sat in a hospital bed beside Athena, his arm in a cast with fluids and meds being pumped into him, he can’t help but smile widely.

“You know there are easier ways to visit, Buckaroo.” Athena gives her adopted son a loving gaze.

“Love you too, mom.”

Eddie’s hand is warm in his, the rest of the firefam around them, and Buck has never been happier. 

These people are his family, his everything, and because of that, he knows he’s never alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Eddie says: Reckless, foolish, big hearted idiot!


End file.
